Saturday, March 1, 2014

Pia in Linen

It will be no surprise to you that I've sewn up Tessuti's latest pattern, the Pia Dress. I have well-documented my love for their designs, in particular the dresses. I'm planning a Tokyo jacket soon, and a Zoe top. When I saw the Pia Dress released, I knew I'd sew it quickly. And I did!

I sewed it in a lovely medium weight enzyme washed black linen from Tessuti. The weight of this linen is amazing, and it is soft and drapes beautifully. I had an issue washing it though - weird slightly raised lines have appeared on the fabric - has anyone had this issue? I pre washed without detergent and the lines appeared then washed with detergent and they remain. Weird.

This is the size small, sewn with larger seam allowances than the pattern provides. I sewed a size small in some linen Anna gifted me, and it was huge and quite unflattering. So I made this black one with approximately 1.7cm seam allowances instead of the 1.25cm the pattern directs you to use. I now have a much more flattering fit.

I don't have much to say, review wise. Apart from using larger seam allowances, I shortened the dress by 3cm. Yes, I shortened it!! Amazing.

It was a comfy dress to wear to dinner. We went to Pizza Farro and I had an extremely delicious Margherita with buffalo mozzarella. Yum. I ate the whole pizza - that is pretty unusual for me! Then I had a scoop of homemade chocolate gelato for dessert. It was intensely rich but so good.

I'll leave you with this last picture. I was so tired when I went out. I can't remember if I've told you but my sister Ruth is getting married! Woohoo! We have been wedding dress shopping, and yesterday was an all-day affair. I'm finding my energy levels after working 4 days are fairly abysmal, so after a full day of wedding dress shopping I was bordering on too tired to go out for dinner. I had a small cat nap while posing for pictures….

I'm hoping I get used to this 4th day soon - I need some energy to sew!!

47 comments:

I love it belted! I've got this pattern too and was thinking of making it up in some silk that I got from the Fabric Store but not sure how it will work out. I'm struggling with silk at the moment. Good luck with the 4 days.. I've got no advice as I'm always tired. I'm glad the disco nap allowed you to go out and enjoy your night.

This looks great, I really like it belted. I find 4 days a week pretty exhausting, having just transitioned up from 3 days. It's too many days for me, even with my oldest now at school so I'm hoping to go back down to 3 soon.

This is fabulous! I saw the version in the melbourne store & it looked lovely, but it looks even better on you - possibly my favourite of them so far. Am loving all your creations and understand the spontaneous cat naps - steal them when you can ;)

it looks so good in black, very chic. I looooove the shoulders and pockets on this pattern, i wasn't sure it was for me because of the shift shape but seeing yours belted makes me think. It's so beautiful!

Hi Rachel, love this dress - looks amazing. I do have a question - how does the width of the seam allowance make such a difference, as the size was the same. Didn't quite understand. Am ready to make mine so not sure if I should change the seam allowance too. Thanks.

Hi Evelyne, by increasing the seam allowances I made the dress smaller. I essentially took an extra 1-1.5cm out of each seam. I could have graded the pieces between the small and extra small but I was feeling lazy and knew that increasing the seam allowances would take out the extra width that made the size small too big.